Sea Salt Caramel, an inspired flavor. Photo
courtesy Yasso.

Yasso’s new yogurt pop flavors are more exciting than the original crop, and we’ve been enjoying every one:

 
The Peanut Butter Cup and Sea Salt Caramel yogurt pops are standouts, given the rarity of such flavors in frozen treats. They are beautifully executed.

Nor could we tear ourselves away from the Dark Chocolate Raspberry and Mint Chocolate Chip. Amazingly, the product developers at Yasso managed to pick our favorite flavors!

The original flavors—Blueberry, Coconut, Mango, Strawberry, Vanilla Bean—weighed in at 70 or 80 calories. With the new flavors the count has been upped a bit, but so has the flavor. You can’t find a better 100-calorie treat or everyday snack (add an extra 10 calories for the chocolate-dipped and 30 calories for the peanut butter).

Made of Greek yogurt and other natural ingredients, the pops are available at retailers nationwide. The line is certified kosher by OU.

Learn more at Yasso.com.
 
  

We’ve got watermelon left over from July 4th, so today we’re juicing it and transforming it into ice pops—with tequila, thanks to this recipe from Love And Olive Oil.

Here’s the whole story. Check out the site’s many beautiful recipes.
 
 
RECIPE: TEQUILA WATERMELON ICE POPS

Ingredients For 6 Pops

 
For a red, white and blue theme, toss in some blueberries.

Frosty, beautiful and spiked with tequila. Photo courtesy Love And Olive Oil.

1. COMBINE the water and sugar in a microwave safe container or glass measuring cup. Heat on high for 30 seconds to 1 minute and stir until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is clear. Set aside to cool.

2. MAKE the watermelon juice: Roughly chop the watermelon. You’ll need about 3 cups of chopped melon to produce about a cup of juice. Run the melon through a food mill if you have one, or crush and then strain through a fine mesh sieve.

3. COMBINE the watermelon juice, sugar syrup, lime juice and zest, and tequila in a small bowl or pitcher. Pour into ice pop molds. Insert sticks and freeze until solid.
 
 
MORE GOURMET ICE POP RECIPES

Beyond the simple treats of childhood, ice pops have been elevated to gourmet treats. Consider adding some of these recipe books to your repertoire:

[2] Americans are more familiar with the French-style génoise (zhen-WOZ), a strawberry shortcake that’s a sponge layer cake with whipped cream. Here’s the recipe for this cake (photo © Fun Cooking).

Sweet summer berries and stone fruits beg to be turned into shortcake. It requires only three ingredients: the fruit of choice, whipped cream and the biscuit or cake base.

The original shortcake concept, from the U.K., uses a slightly sweetened baking soda or baking powder biscuit or scone: a crumbly bread that has been leavened with baking powder or baking soda.

Split in half, the base is piled with fruit and whipped cream, then topped with the other half, often with more fruit and whipped cream on top.

Just to confirm: The classic shortcake isn’t cake, in the American sense.

To us, it’s a dry biscuit: a crumbly, roll-shaped bread that has been leavened with baking powder or baking soda.

As time marched forward, the classic biscuit base remained, but new variations evolved. The history of shortcake continues below.

June 14th is National Strawberry Shortcake Day.
 
 
RECIPE #1: CLASSIC STRAWBERRY (OR ANY FRUIT) SHORTCAKE

If you don’t have to bake the biscuits, this is a pretty easy recipe to assemble. There’s a shortcake biscuit recipe below, but other choices include:
 
For The Biscuits (Choose One)

 
For The Whipped Cream

 
We intentionally omitted Cool Whip imitation whipped cream. Many people love it, but we can’t get past the ingredients, which include hydrogenated vegetable oil and high fructose corn syrup.

RECIPE #2: SHORTCAKE BISCUITS

Shortcake biscuits add a bit of sugar to a conventional biscuit recipe.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 450°F. Grease a cookie sheet.

2. SIFT the dry ingredients together. Beat 2 eggs with milk and set aside.

3. MIX 3/4 cup shortening with the dry ingredients. Add the milk and eggs and knead on a board for a few minutes.

4. ROLL the dough out 3/4 inch thick. Cut with a round cookie cutter and bake 10 to 15 minutes on greased cookie sheet. Cool on a rack.

5. ASSEMBLE: Cut biscuits in half. Spoon some of the fruit and any juice onto each shortcake bottom. Top with whipped cream and add the shortcake top (you can serve the shortcake open face if you prefer). Spoon more fruit over the top and serve.
 
 
SHORTCAKE HISTORY

The first known strawberry shortcake recipe appeared in an English cookbook around 1588. The original concept used a slightly sweetened baking soda or baking powder biscuit or scone [source].

The next recipe of note was published in 1847 by food writer Eliza Leslie in The Lady’s Receipt-Book.

An 1850 recipe creates the dish with biscuits, butter, strawberries and sweetened cream. Perhaps a way to create a tea-time dessert from leftover breakfast biscuits, softening them with biscuits and cream?

By 1850, strawberry shortcake was a well-known biscuit-and-fruit dessert, served hot with butter and sweetened cream.

But by 1910 the modern version emerged, using whipped cream as the topping, as the French did with their own version, the strawberry génoise (more about that in a minute).

American Shortcake

The concept of using a biscuit traveled across the pond. Split in half, the base was piled with fruit and whipped cream, then topped with the other half of the biscuit, often with more fruit and whipped cream on top (photos #1 and #6).

In the U.S., shortcake parties were held as celebrations of the summer fruit harvest, typically using berries and stone fruits.

Some of the earliest American recipes used pie crust rounds or broken-up pieces of baked pie crust. According to Wikipedia, that recipe that can still be found in the South.

However, another version of shortcake emerged, based on the French sponge cake, called génoise (zhen-WOZ).

Sponge layers were filled with whipped cream and strawberries, and the cake was frosted with more whipped cream (photos #2, #5 and #7).

Some housewives baked a standard sponge cake in a tube pan, sliced it horizontally and used the same filling.

To make the dessert easier for housewives, some commercial bakeries created sponge dessert cups—individual sponge cake cups that only required strawberries topped with whipped cream.

More recently, Japanese bakers created a hybrid of the American and the French versions.

As the concept has evolved, biscuits and sponge have been replaced by everything from:

 
For June 14th, National Strawberry Shortcake Day, have whatever style of shortcake you like.

How about a pot luck where everyone brings his/her own creation?

Please invite us!
 
 
MORE SHORTCAKE RECIPES

[3] Ice cream can replace the whipped cream. Here, homemade rhubarb ice cream joins stewed rhubarb on a shortcake (photo © The Chefs Collaborative Cookbook).

[4] Think outside the biscuit: a variation made with a loaf of pound cake. Here’s the recipe (photo © The Baker Chick).

[5] The best strawberry shortcake layer cake. Get the recipe in Birthday Cakes by Fiona Cairns (photo © Rizzoli).

[6] Grilled peach shortcake, shown here with ice cream, can be served with whipped cream instead. Or, why not both (photo © Go Bold With Butter).

[7] Strawberry shortcake has become popular in Japan. Here’s the recipe for this Japanese Strawberry Sponge Cake (photo © Recipe Tin Japan).

The specialty food business is full of entrepreneurs who follow their dream, creating products they’d like to buy but haven’t found in the marketplace.

In the soda arena, sparkling juice pioneers like Izze and Fizzy Lizzy have offered a lighter, fresher, all natural alternative to soda pop, simply by combining juice with carbonated water.

Sprizz-O, new in the market, is even lighter, an ethereal, minimally sweet carbonated beverage that you’ll either find to be very refreshing, or not flavorful enough.

We were divided in those opinions at THE NIBBLE’s tasting of samples we received. Sprizz-O is so light, it takes getting used to. But all of us finally got there, declaring it a fine refreshment for a scorching day.

Made from juice, carbonated water and a bit of cane sugar, each 12 ounce bottle contains contains 50 calories.

If you’d like to try a carbonated drink with a much lower sugar level, Sprizz-O is available in Cranberry, Grape, Grapefruit, Lime and Orange.

The vanilla Greek yogurt adds delicious creaminess to a traditional frozen lemonade cocktail.

You can make it “mocktail,” without the vodka, or you can substitute gin or tequila.

And here’s how to make the best sugar rim.

RECIPE: FROZEN LEMON SPARKLERS

Ingredients For 3-4 Drinks

Preparation

1. PREPARE glasses with optional sugar rim.

2. COMBINE all drink ingredients into a blender and fill with ice. Start with a handful of ice and keep adding as necessary. Blend on high/ice crush until smooth.

3. FILL the glasses and serve immediately with a straw.
Visit Celebrations.com, a member of the 1-800-Flowers family, for more creative entertaining ideas.